Responding to Russia's claim that the USA missile strike on a Syrian airbase wasn't very effective, President Donald Trump has explained as to why the runways were not attacked and remain undamaged.

"The U.S. alerted Russian Federation to make sure their own personnel or equipment were not hit and it would be fair to assume Syria was warned" Tack says.

The US is "disappointed but not surprised" at Russia's response to its strikes on a Syrian air base suspected of storing chemical weapons.

The US strikes cheered Assad's enemies, after months when Western powers appeared to grow increasingly resigned to his staying in power. Some Syrians, too, are showing appreciation for "Abu Ivanka," or the "Father of Ivanka".

Such anger though did not extend to Breitbart, the news website formerly run by and still closely allied with Mr Steve Bannon, Mr Trump's anti-globalist White House strategist. The choice of the airfield for attack was a limited, comparatively low-stakes target. He says that once the militant group is eliminated, the US can turn to stabilizing Syria.

Syrian and Russian outrage at the USA involvement is an expected response to this first open major American military action against Assad since the 2011 civil war began.

"We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary", she told the UN Security Council.

Western leaders blamed Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President who is being supported militarily by Russian Federation in the civil war, for the attack. For that to happen, he said, "this oppressive Assad needs to go". For him, realism beats idealism when it comes to foreign policy.

Was this a one-off USA intervention reflective of Trump's interest in doing "something" in response to a particularly shocking event?

We don't know, because the USA leader has shown limited consistent attention to foreign policy.

For Tillerson, the trip is even more delicate than before: He must find a way to show the USA can stand up to Russian Federation and safeguard elements of cooperation at the same time.

Central to the FBI and congressional investigations into Russia's election meddling are concerns that Trump, through his associates, may have signaled to Russian Federation that he would lift the sanctions after taking office.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, sent a letter Friday to House Speaker Ryan, requesting the cancellation of the House recess for a debate on the military strike at Syria.

White House officials caution that Trump is not preparing to plunge the US deeper into Syria. The Trump administration has expressed indifference toward complex diplomacy. He also said the top US priority in the region hasn't changed and remained the defeat of Islamic State militants. And it might risk long-term, unpopular military engagement, with greater responsibility for state-building, like what bedeviled Washington a decade ago in Iraq.

"We're hopeful that China will find ways to exercise influence over North Korea's actions to dismantle their nuclear weapons and their missile technology programs, " the secretary of state said.

Warplanes bombarded a town in northern Syria on Saturday where a chemical weapons attack killed scores of people earlier this week, according to Syrian opposition activists.

The US has led a coalition carrying out air strikes against jihadist groups in Syria since 2014 but this is the first time it has targeted government forces.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev charged that the USA strikes were one step away from clashing with Russia's military. It's unlikely, but with Donald Trump, it is hard to know for sure. Such a commitment would require not quick attacks but subtle diplomacy, with the credible threat of force as one policy lever among many.